"Note: Reading other GoodReads comments you’ll see that most find the book less than enjoyable, yet consistently rate the book highly. This incongruity can likely be explained by the general perception that an author’s fame is in every instance deserved, coupled with a herd mentality and desire for personal conformity."
"I think the idea of it is enough. No need to trudge through it just to end on that incomplete sentence that I'm well-aware it ends with."
"I've had a lifelong obsession with Kafka, but his novels I can do without."
"I'm a huge lover of Kafka but I was somewhat bored by most of this book, even though the general concept and backdrop is intriguing in its very Kafkaesque fashion."
"A very difficult read. But being a huge Kafka fan I forced myself through to the dizzy end."
YES, IT WAS TOUGH, BUT I'M SUCH A HUGE KAFKA FAN THAT I WAS ABLE TO FORCE MYSELF TO FINISH ONE OF HIS BOOKS
"It is society's fault as a hole."
"Honestly, I quit ... The value The Castle has to offer here and now is not worth the attention required to read it."
"It's like... what the f#$%!"
"If you really read this, you may be as disappointed as was I. It is yet another example of a 'classic' that is unspeakably dull and perhaps over-rated by critics who are as far from the normal reader as an English professor can be from a lover of books."
"this is out of harmony"
"Ok, I know this is GREAT LITERATURE, but I kept wondering when he was going to get to the damn castle."
"I just really didnt get this book. The writing is good but the story seems to be unreasovled to me. Maybe it wasnt translated well or maybe I'm missing something!"
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ReplyDeleteThis book is an overrated nightmare. Kafka, who I've always heard so much about, is unrightfully put on a pedestal for this work. From the start the book is gets the reader so high strung but offers no release all the way through the end. I get it, there are a lot of hidden meaning in the book, but is the book profound? I don't think so. The book is analyzed from many perspectives, but none of them are that special, a reader can come up with their own conclusion similar to the scholars. The book is not profound, it just drags on forever. K. has so many pointless conversations with brainwashed local villagers that they all start to sound the same, like reading the same pages over and over. Reading the book is like running toward an object with all your might and watching it get farther and farther away, so annoying. Also, personally found so many plot holes in the book. The book is at times so surreal that it becomes unbearable. Kafka also bitches way too much about the bureaucracy, God! get over yourself!!!! No one's life is that heavily invested in bureaucratic entanglements like the character K.'s in the novel.
ReplyDeleteOkay, let me get my two cents in. As a lover of surrealism, a huge Kafka fan, and above all as a writer, I can vouch for this book. Was it bland? Yes. Was it dull and repetitive and even poorly written? I'd say so. Truth is, I didn't even read beyond Chapter 3. But this isn't a bad novel. We have to remember that this is a rough draft, a sketch if you will, of a novel left on the writer's desk. Hell, the draft wasn't even finished. Of course it's going to suck! Because it is unfinished. It is not published as the writer even intended it to be. Hell, Kafka didn't even want the bulk of his writing's to be published. I decided to stop reading this because to do so is disrespectful to the author. I know I would kill myself if a first draft of mine got published.
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